With lightning clashing in the distance, revealing the silhouette of mountains around its home stadium, Phoenix Rising FC (6-8-8) played to a 0-0 draw against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
“I think the guys performed pretty well, not only with intensity but also showing quality today on the field,” said Interim Head Coach Diego Gomez. “We’re just missing the goal, and I think we had more than enough chances to get a goal but today we couldn’t get the ball to go inside [the net].”
Phoenix Rising started the match with tremendous energy, drawing Joshua Perez into an early yellow card by manipulating play on the outside of the pitch. This trend continued throughout the first 45 minutes, with Rising finding the back of the net twice in a goalless half.
Most of Rising’s chances came from its pace on the outside, with Edgardo Rito and Juan Carlos Azocar consistently finding space behind the Tampa Bay back line. Tomas Angel was the first Rising player to split the Tampa Bay defense, playing Azocar into the box. Azocar put his head down and drilled a shot into the bottom right corner of the net, but he was flagged offside by the official on the line.
Rising continued to work the ball from the inside out, finding Angel, who siphoned the attack toward the Tampa Bay goal. Starting to gel in his second match with Rising, Angel and attacking midfielder Fede Varela controlled play for Rising in the final third, helping the club dominate possession at 68 percent through the first 45 minutes.
“Tomas [Angel] gave us a lot of good movement and his quality in the last third, he will be the first one that is disappointed that he didn’t score a goal, but I told him to relax, if he keeps playing like that he’s going to score a lot of goals for us,” said Gomez.
On the other side of the pitch, Tampa Bay tried to filter its attack through Cal Jennings, the Tampa talisman who had found the back of the net 12 times in the 2024 season, but Tampa Bay looked stagnant in the final third, largely due to the strong play of Papae Mar Boye, who tracked Jennings well and held him to no shots and just eight touches in the first half.
Azocar followed up his first called off goal with another, receiving the ball this time from Rito, who played the it across the box and found him just beyond the six-yard area in the 25th minute. Azocar pinged it through traffic, deflecting off a defender and Tampa Bay goalkeeper Jordan Farr to cross the line. However, the center official ruled that Federico Varela was blocking the keeper from an offside position, and the goal was waved off.
Phoenix Rising continued to push forward, and it was once again Rising’s new number nine with a chance to close the half. Azocar, the playmaker in this instance, found Angel near the penalty spot with a defender to beat. Angel shifted the ball under his body toward his left boot before unleashing a shot toward the bottom corner of the net that was parried away by Farr.
A scoreless first half was not unfamiliar territory for either team, as Phoenix Rising had failed to score a first-half goal in 15 of their 22 games, while the Tampa Bay Rowdies had kept the opposition from scoring a first-half goal in 16 of their 22 games.
Rising had been a strong second-half team this season, but it was Tampa Bay that had the first chance of the second half. Manuel Arteaga’s familiar left boot was denied at the near post by Rising goalkeeper Rocco Rios Novo, who was called into action again in the 57th minute, this time by another Arteaga shot from near the penalty spot that Rios Novo parried over the net.
In just 15 minutes played in the second half, Tampa Bay created four shots, directed two on frame, and drew a yellow card from former Rowdie and current Phoenix Rising midfielder Charlie Dennis.
Absorbing pressure early in the second half, Interim Head Coach Diego Gomez sought to slow down Tampa Bay with a pair of substitutions in the 66th minute, replacing Varela with a more defensive central midfielder in Giulio Doratiotto and bringing on fresh legs in the form of Gabi Torres, who settled in at left outside back.
“We played against a really good team and it’s impossible to dominate the game for 90 minutes. The first twenty minutes [of the second half] they played on the front foot and were having more of the ball and more chances, but I think we suffered well and defended well,” said Gomez. “After that 20 minutes, we said we will win back the game and I think in those last minutes we were again the better team.”
However, Doratiotto made his presence felt almost immediately on the offensive side, receiving a pass from Dennis at the top of the box and hitting a dipping shot toward the upper left-hand corner of the Tampa Bay goal. Farr managed to get both hands on the ball for his second save of the night.
Tampa Bay countered quickly off the save, with both of its attackers in on goal. Arteaga played the ball across to Jennings, who had finally found some space in the Rising penalty area and managed to deflect the ball onto the crossbar before Rios Novo collected it.
Phoenix Rising substitutes Doratiotto and Torres combined for another quality opportunity in the 79th minute, with Doratiotto taking advantage of the center official allowing play to continue after a Tampa Bay foul. Doratiotto quickly pushed the ball forward to Tomas, who cut inside on his left foot and let a shot fly. The ball deflected off a Rowdies defender and fell to Torres, who took a first-time shot, forcing a difficult save from Farr.
Despite regaining momentum and tallying seven shots in the final 15 minutes of the match—including a Dariusz Formella bicycle kick off the crossbar—Rising was unable to find the back of the net before the final whistle, and the match concluded as a 0-0 draw.
“We’re playing against a really good opponent, but everybody that was on and off the field felt like it was two points lost because we were the better team on the field,” said Gomez.
Rising will have the next week off to prepare for its upcoming home match against North Carolina FC on Saturday, August 24 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets for that match are on sale now at pxhrisingfc.com/tickets.
Scoring:
N/A
Discipline:
TBR – 3′ Joshua Perez (caution)
TBR – 54′ Danny Crisostomo (caution)
PHX – 61′ Charlie Dennis (caution)
PHX – 90′ Damien Barker John (caution)
Lineups:
Phoenix Rising FC – Rocco Rios Novo, Alejandro Fuenmayor, Pape Mar Boye, Laurence Wyke, Emil Cuello (66′ Gabi Torres), Charlie Dennis (80′ Jose Hernández), Renzo Zambrano, Federico Varela (66′ Giulio Doratiotto), Juan Carlos Azocar (89′ Dariusz Formella), Tomas Angel, Edgardo Rito Damien (80′ Damien Barker John).
Substitutes Not Used: John Scearce, Patrick Rakovsky, Jamison Ping, Braxton Montgomery.
Tampa Bay Rowdies – Jordan Farr, Aaron Guillen, Freddy Kleemann, Jordan Doherty, Eddie Munjoma (85′ Zane Bubb), Lewis Hilton, Danny Crisostomo (67′ Nathan Worth), Pacifique Niyongabire (42′ Damián Rivera), Joshua Pérez (85′ Leo Fernandes), Cal Jennings (85′ Cristian Ortiz), Manuel Arteaga.
Substitutes Not Used: Phil Breno, Matheus De Jesus.
